Museum History

Museum History

The MA*GA Museum, open since 1966, is one of the most important contemporary art museums in Italy and it now has the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities as a partner. It houses a collection of more than six thousand works of art hosted in its five thousand square meter premises in Gallarate, a town halfway between Malpensa Airport and Milan, and at a branch in Legnano, located in the historical Leone da Perego Palace.The origin of the Museum goes back to 1949, when the Gallarate National Visual Arts Awards was created, with a view to establishing a contemporary art museum by purchasing the works exhibited in the various editions of the event. The first edition dates from May 25th1950, while we have recently celebrated the 25th. The Municipal Gallery of Modern Art was opened in 1966 on the occasion of the 8thedition of the Gallarate Awards. In 1973 the Gallery was moved andenlarged, while the establishment of the MA*GA Museum in its currentheadquarters was finally carried out in 2010. In more than sixtyyears since its foundation, the MA*GA has organized the everydaymuseum activities and twenty-five editions of the Gallarate Awards,paying particular attention to a variety of artistic languages from aperspective which gives prominence to the study of the mostsignificant contemporary expressions. Among the themes of the mostrecent editions we would like to mention: TerzoPaesaggio. Fotografia Italiana Oggi (2009), LongPlay (2012) and Urban Mining/Rigenerazioni Urbane(2016).